The streets of Pushkar, especially during the mela, come alive with roadside cafes, Italian, French, German, Israeli, and every other imaginable eating joint.
While walking the streets, I came across restaurants serving all kind of cuisines. Loud signs outside restaurants inviting you inside in all possible languages including Hebrew, Italian, French, English, and funny.
Here is one I came across…
It was obviously impossible to check out all the places, but some that I do remember are…
Pink Floyd cafe – Boards of the cafe are all over the city and all these hoardings look like the cover of “The Wall”. Curiosity got the better of us and we ventured into the place. It is only later that we realized that curiosity, in fact, does kill the cat!
I’ll (try to) be fair here… The place has an excellent location, and the terrace is really cool. A really nice place to sit around and chill. We walked in and really liked the terrace, this is when things started going downhill. Mr. “Floyd” (the owner of the joint) was extremely rude, and so was his entire staff, and unfortunately their nature was pretty much served to us in a plate. Bad food, bad service and rude behavior. All the ingredients needed to ruin an otherwise great evening.
Street food – On the final night of the mela, there was a fireworks show organized by the locals. Imagine a nice peaceful ghat, with a pool of water in front (had the lake not dried up, this would have been simply stunning), temples all around, and night creeping in slowly. A bunch of friends sitting by the pool, there is peace all around and minimal conversation. Finally some people did get hungry(thankfully). So a couple of people from the group went to get something to eat, while the rest of us just soaked in the surroundings. Surprisingly, the ghat was very peaceful, and there were hardly any people. Just us and a few other groups, no invasion into anyone’s space.
A little while later, the fireworks started. By this time, the foodies had arrived with some delicious street food. The Pakodas and Kadi were simply amazing, and a must have for anyone visiting Pushkar. So now all of us were sitting very peacefully, watching the fireworks, and having some yum food.
Fireworks across the (dried up) lake
After the fireworks, we decided to explore some more street food. We walked up to this roadside cafe making Malpuas and rabri. We thought we will go slow, and try it out first. So everyone very politely took a small bite each from the malpua. And there we were, everyone standing wide eyed, looking at each other with the “OH WOW I think I attained the culinary equivalent of nirvana”. It was one of those times when time stops for a fraction of a second (only for a fraction but) because after that, everyone pretty much dived into the little leaf plates mouth first!
**my mouth is actually watering writing about that**
One of the guys making the good stuff…
foooooddd!
Hotel Prem Vilas – The other place that we got delicious food was at the hotel we stayed in – Prem Vilas. Really chilled out place and friendly guys at the hotel. We requested a Dal-Bhati-Choorma lunch one afternoon, and were served the most delicious Rajasthani D-B-C. The only issue with D-B-C is that once you eat a bit, you feel like you have eaten a rock and it has gone and settled inside you. The Choorma was different from the usual, and simply delicious (sweet and filled with ghee). After this lunch, most of us were in a state of extreme slow motion, and a couple of us pretty much decided that it’s time to pass out and digest the rock. Would like to repeat this lunch though…
Other meals at the hotel were also quite nice, simple food, but nicely made. And the meals had the most important ingredient – courteous behavior.
My thought is, even if average food is served courteously, it tastes great, but when great food is served rudely, it tastes horrible. And what better combination that yum food being served with love.
**YUmmmm… mommy made food… I think i’ll raid the fridge right now!**
**yummm2 memories.. Daadi (paternal grandmother) made parathas, one of those babies, and you can’t move**
**yummm3 memories… Naani (maternal grandmother) made EVERYTHING in childhood**
**damn… I’m hungry now!**
Pink Floyd – was rudeness a strategy to get rid of Indians? Am assuming you’re Indian from your name. They’re known to serve alcohol and bhang lassis – maybe they thought you were spies or govt. officials?
@Chris,
It might just be so (rudeness as a strategy…) We were offered the bhang lassis as well. So I’m guessing that it has nothing to do with being spies or govt. officials.
Just that we felt they were quite rude, and the food was below average.